Jogendra Sen

Jogendra Nath Sen

France

Jogendra Nath Sen was born in Chandernagore in Bengal in 1887. In 1910 he went to Leeds to study engineering at the University of Leeds. He graduated with a BSc in electrical engineering in 1913. Hindu by background, Sen was a member of the choir at Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel. After his degree, he worked as assistant engineer at Leeds Corporation Electric Lighting station. In 1914, when war broke out, he applied to serve as an officer in the British Army. Sen was one of the first men to volunteer to join the Leeds Pals Battalion, taking on the rank of private. His company fought in France and was heavily shelled in the trenches near Bus-les-Artois in France on the night of 22 May 1916. He died in action that night and was the first known Bengali, and citizen of Chandernagore, to die in the First World War.

Jogendra Sen is buried in the Sucrerie Military Cemetery at Colincamps. Sen’s name is inscribed on the University of Leeds War Memorial and on two rolls of honour at Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel in Leeds city centre. His blood-stained glasses are preserved in Dupleix Museum in Chandernagore.